As election nears, Iran's journalists are in chains

Iran continues to jail dozens of journalists, stifling critical news coverage and commentary. Crucial links to the international community have been cut off as the June presidential vote approaches. A CPJ special report by Sherif Mansour

Journalists Imprisoned in Iran, December 2000-April 2013

Unless otherwise noted, all figures are from CPJ's annual worldwide census conducted in December each year. In 2010, as the government's crackdown escalated, CPJ conducted several monthly censuses of journalists imprisoned in Iran.

Published May 8, 2013

NEW YORKIranian authorities are holding at least 40 journalists in prison as the June presidential election approaches, the
second-highest total in the world and a figure that reflects the government’s continuing determination to silence independent coverage of public affairs, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found.

CPJ’s census of journalists imprisoned on April 15 also highlights the severe deterioration of freedom of expression in Iran over time. In December 2004, during the last full year of President Mohammad Khatami’s tenure, CPJ documented just one journalist in prison during its annual worldwide prison census. By December 2009, after a contested presidential election returned Mahmoud Ahmedinejad to office, the number had grown to 23 in CPJ’s annual census. CPJ surveys since that time have consistently shown 35 to
50 journalists in prison in Iran at any given time.

Only Turkey, with 48 in jail, was detaining more journalists on April 15, CPJ research shows.

As devastating as the imprisonments are to the individual journalists and their families, the Iranian government’s tactics have had an intimidating effect on the press, choking off the flow of information. This census and CPJ’s past surveys are simply snapshots in time—they do not include the large numbers of journalists convicted of crimes or facing charges who are temporarily free on bail or furlough. Iran has pursued a revolving-door policy in imprisoning journalists, freeing some detainees on short-term furloughs even as they make new arrests. The pattern of rotating critical journalists in and out of prison has sown fear and self-censorship across the entire press corps, according to CPJ research. At least 68 Iranian journalists fled into exile between 2007 and 2012 due to harassment and the threat of imprisonment, according to CPJ research. Only Somali journalists have gone into exile in higher numbers during that period.

The Iranian government has used several other tactics to intimidate journalists. Authorities have blocked millions of websites, banned reformist publications, and conducted widespread electronic surveillance in an effort to make a wide range of topics off-limits to public debate. “Many of the topics we could cover five years ago, like cultural issues, we couldn’t do anymore,” Omid Memarian, an exiled Iranian journalist, told CPJ. “Journalists were even prevented from covering the earthquake relief efforts that happened in Iran last year.”

In 2013, as the Iranian government began a new wave
of detentions aimed at silencing journalists ahead of the elections,
Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi announced that 600 Iranian journalists were
part of an anti-state network. He said the arrests were an attempt to
"prevent the emergence of sedition prior to the elections."

Farideh Farhi, a member of the graduate faculty at
the University of Hawaii who has written extensively about Iran, said the
arrests are part of a concerted effort by Iranian authorities to break the links
between reporters inside Iran and their Farsi-speaking counterparts abroad. In
the 2009 election, poll observers representing the candidates passed on reports
of fraud to local reporters who then relayed the information to colleagues
outside the country. This chain of information may be broken for this year’s
vote, Farhi suspects. “The intent,” she said, “is to make sure that reporters
inside Iran will hesitate to answer their phones or Skype when Persian-speaking
reporters based outside of Iran call to figure out what's going on.”

Authorities
also place intense pressure on the families of jailed writers and editors. One
Iranian journalist, Massoud Lavasani, who fled the country after being
imprisoned and tortured for two years, told CPJ that his wife, Fatemeh
Kheradmand, a journalist still living in Iran, is now the sole caretaker of
their child. She was summoned by authorities for questioning recently. He said
he fears that she will be arrested soon and asked: “What would happen to our
child now?”

CPJ research shows that journalists imprisoned
in Iran are routinely subject to abusive treatment, including floggings,
extended periods of solitary confinement, and denial of family visits and
medical care. Here are other trends and details that emerged in CPJ’s
analysis:

Sixty-five percent of journalists are being
held at Evin Prison in Tehran. A number of them, including Hossein
Derakhshan and Saeed Madani, have reported being tortured and coerced into making
false confessions. At least two journalists in the past four years have died
from severe abuse at Evin Prison: Omidreza
Mirsayafi in 2009 and Sattar Beheshti in 2012.
A third journalist, Hoda
Saber, died of
a heart attack at Evin Prison in 2011 after enduring harsh treatment.

Most of the charges were based on the journalists’ critical views of the Iranian government. Eighteen faced charges of “spreading propaganda against the state”; eight for “acting against national security”; three for “insulting the Supreme Leader”; one for “insulting the president”; one for espionage in connection with Israel; and one for “waging war against God.” At least eight jailed journalists had not been informed of the charges against them.

At least eight journalists behind bars have waged hunger
strikes to protest their harsh conditions and abusive treatment. At least 13
have been placed in solitary confinement. One critical blogger, Mehdi Khazali,
has waged several hunger strikes in prison to protest his sentence of 14 years in
jail and 90 lashes on charges of “insulting the supreme leader.” Khazali has
been held in solitary confinement for extended periods and his health has
deteriorated, according to his son

Several journalists have been detained in prisons far away
from their homes, a tactic used to punish journalists’ families. For example, at
least nine journalists included in the census, all of whom are affiliated with
the Gonabadi dervishes minority group in the city of Shiraz, are being held in
Evin Prison, despite their arrest in the town of Kavar, more than 600 miles away.

The Imprisoned

Below are capsule reports
on each journalist jailed in Iran on April 15, 2013:

Adnan Hassanpour, Aso
Imprisoned: January 25, 2007

Security agents seized Hassanpour, editor of the now-defunct
Kurdish-Persian weekly Aso, in his hometown of Marivan, Kurdistan
province, according to news reports. In July 2007, a Revolutionary Court convicted
Hassanpour, 32, on anti-state charges and sentenced him to death. After a
series of appeals and reversals, he was sentenced in May 2010 to 15 years in
prison, his defense lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, told the independent press outlet Human
Rights Activists News Agency.

The government’s case against Hassanpour amounted to a
series of assertions by security agents, his defense attorney, Sirvan Hosmandi,
told CPJ in 2008. Hassanpour's sister, Lily, told CPJ that she believed his
critical writings were behind the charges.

Hassanpour was being held at Sanandaj Central Prison in
Kurdistan Province. He has not been allowed furlough during his time in prison
despite repeated requests by his lawyer and family, news reports said. His sister
told the Committee of Human
Rights Reporters that the journalist’s overall health had deteriorated in
prison from lack of proper medical care.

Mohammad Seddigh Kaboudvand, Payam-e-Mardom
Imprisoned: July 1, 2007

Plainclothes security officials arrested journalist and
human rights activist Kaboudvand, 49, at his Tehran office, according to
Amnesty International and CPJ sources. He was being held at Evin Prison in
Tehran.

Authorities charged Kaboudvand, head of the Human Rights
Organization of Kurdistan and managing editor of the weekly Payam-e-Mardom,
with acting against national security and engaging in propaganda against the
state, according to his organization's website. A Revolutionary Court in Tehran
sentenced him to 11 years in prison in 2008.

Kaboudvand's health deteriorated in prison, and he was
consistently denied requests for medical leave or family visits. The
journalist’s wife, Farinaz Baghban Hassani, told the International Campaign for
Human Rights in Iran that when his family members were finally allowed to see
him, they believed he had suffered significant heart problems in custody. News
accounts also reported that the journalist has suffered from severe dizziness and
disruption of speech and vision.

Kaboudvand has waged several hunger strikes to protest
authorities' refusal to grant him a furlough to see his son, who was diagnosed
with leukemia, according to news reports. After waging a hunger strike that
left him hospitalized, authorities in December 2012 temporarily released him on
bail of 700 million toman (about US$250,000) to visit his son. The journalist
returned to prison after four days, news reports said.

Mojtaba Lotfi, freelance
Imprisoned: October 8, 2008

Security forces arrested Lotfi, a blogger and clergyman, on
a warrant issued by the Clergy Court in Qom. Authorities accused him of publishing
the views of Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, the deceased cleric who had
criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's positions, but did not specify any articles
or publications in which the views were supposedly cited.

In November 2009, Lotfi was convicted of several charges,
including spreading anti-state information, and sentenced to four years in
prison followed by a period of exile, according to news reports.

In July 2010, the Human Rights House of Iran reported that
Lotfi had been transferred to the remote village of Ashtian for 10 years of
enforced internal exile. Lotfi, an Iran-Iraq War veteran who was exposed to
chemical agents, suffers from a respiratory illness that has worsened during
his confinement, the reformist news website Norooz News reported.

Hossein Derakhshan, freelance
Imprisoned: November 2008

On December 30, 2008, a judiciary spokesman confirmed at a
press conference in Tehran that Derakhshan, a well-known Iranian-Canadian
blogger, had been detained since November in connection with comments he
allegedly made about a key cleric, according to news reports. The exact date of
Derakhshan’s arrest is unknown, but word of his detention was first reported on
November 17, 2008, by Jahan News, a website close to the Iranian
intelligence service that claimed the journalist had confessed to "spying
for Israel" during a preliminary interrogation.

Known as the “Blogfather” for his pioneering online work,
Derakhshan started blogging after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the
United States. A former writer for reformist newspapers, he also contributed
opinion pieces to the Guardian of London and The New York Times. The
journalist, who lived in Canada during most of the decade prior to his
detention, had returned to Tehran a few weeks before his arrest, The
Washington Post reported.

In September 2010, the government announced that Derakhshan
had been sentenced to 19 and a half years in prison, along with a five-year ban
on “membership in political parties and activities in the media,” according to
the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran and other reports.

Derakhshan has spent much of his imprisonment in solitary
confinement at Evin Prison, according to multiple sources. The International
Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, citing a source close to the journalist's
family, said Derakhshan had been beaten and coerced into making false
confessions about having ties to U.S. and Israeli intelligence services. He has
been allowed short-term furloughs in recent years.

Ahmad Zaid-Abadi, freelance
Imprisoned: June 2009

Zaid-Abadi, who wrote a weekly column for Rooz Online,
a Farsi- and English-language reformist news website, was arrested in Tehran,
according to news reports. Zaid-Abadi had been a supporter of the defeated 2009
presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi and had served as director of the
politically active Organization of University Alumni of the Islamic Republic of
Iran.

On November 23, 2009, Zaid-Abadi was sentenced to six years
in prison, five years of internal exile in Khorasan province, and a “lifetime
deprivation of any political activity” including “interviews, speeches, and
analysis of events, whether in written or oral form,” according to the Persian
service of the German public news broadcaster
Deutsche Welle. An appeals court upheld the sentence on January 2, 2010,
according to Advar News.

In February 2010, Zaid-Abadi was transferred to Rajaee Shahr
Prison. Zaid-Abadi's wife, Mahdieh Mohammadi, said prison conditions were
crowded and unsanitary, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
reported. She said she feared malnutrition and the spread of disease.

In recent years, Zaid-Abadi has been granted short furloughs
after posting large bail sums, according to reformist news websites. He was
awarded the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in 2011 and the
World Association of Newspapers’ Golden Pen of Freedom Award in 2010.

Kayvan Samimi, Nameh
Imprisoned: June 14, 2009

Samimi, manager of the now-defunct monthly Nameh, was
serving a six-year prison sentence along with a 15-year ban on “political,
social, and cultural activities,” the Aftab News website reported.

Samimi was subjected to mistreatment while being held in
Evin Prison. In February 2010, he was transferred to solitary confinement after
objecting to poor prison conditions, according to Free Iranian Journalists, a
website devoted to documenting cases of jailed reporters and editors. In
November 2010, the journalist was transferred to Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj,
which houses violent criminals, according to news reports.

Samimi suffers from liver problems, which have worsened in
custody. He was briefly hospitalized in March 2012 for treatment.

In September 2012, authorities at Rajaee Shahr Prison placed
Samimi and fellow journalist Massoud Bastani in solitary confinement for
several days after a photograph of the two detainees was published on the
reformist news website Kaleme, the outlet reported. Since his arrest,
Samimi has been allowed furlough only once. He has gone on hunger strike
several times to protest prison conditions and treatment.

Issa Saharkhiz, freelance
Imprisoned: July 3, 2009

Saharkhiz, a columnist for the reformist news websites Rooz
Online and Norooz and a founding member of the Association of Iranian
Journalists, was arrested while traveling in northern Iran, the association
said in a statement. His lawyer said his client was charged with “participation
in riots,” “encouraging others to participate in riots,” and “insulting the
supreme leader,” according to Rooz Online.

Saharkhiz was sentenced in September 2010 to three years in
prison, a five-year ban on political and journalistic activities, and a
one-year ban on foreign travel, the reformist news website Jonbesh-e-Rah-e-Sabz
reported in September 2010. In an interview with Radio Zamaneh, Mehdi Saharkhiz
said his father would not appeal the court’s decision. “He said that all
sentencing is made under [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei’s direct supervision and the
judiciary has nothing to do with it. Therefore, neither the lower court nor the
appeals court is official in any way, and they are only for show.”

Saharkhiz was handed an additional two-year sentence
on August 5, 2011, in connection to what was only referred to as “press-related
charges,” the U.S. government-funded Radio Farda reported.
The term was reduced to 18 months in prison on June 18, 2012.

Saharkhiz has had a long career in journalism. He worked for
15 years for IRNA, Iran's official news agency, and ran its New York office for
part of that time. He returned to Iran in 1997 to work in Mohammad Khatami’s
Ministry of Islamic Guidance, in charge of domestic publications. Journalist
Ahmad Bourghani and Saharkhiz came to be known as the architects of a period of
relative freedom for the press in Iran. But as the regime took a more
conservative bent, Saharkhiz was forced to leave the ministry and was
eventually banned from government service. He founded a reformist
newspaper, Akhbar-e-Eghtesad, and a monthly magazine, Aftab, both of which
were eventually banned. He wrote articles directly critical of Khamenei, Iran's
supreme leader.

During his imprisonment, which began at Evin Prison, Saharkhiz
was subjected to constant pressure, including being kept in a prison yard
overnight in freezing temperatures without shoes or socks, according to Rooz
Online.

Over the course of his prison term, Saharkhiz has suffered
from poor health including blood pressure, spine, and neck problems. He was
hospitalized for treatment of a heart condition in February 2012; authorities
moved him back to Evin Prison in August against the wishes of his doctor, news
reports said. In September 2012, Saharkhiz refused medication and began waging
a hunger strike to protest his transfer back to prison. He suffered a heart
attack and was hospitalized in state custody, his son told the International
Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Saeed Matin-Pour, freelance
Imprisoned: July 12, 2009

Matin-Pour, a journalist who wrote for his own blog and for
the newspapers Yar Pag and Mouj Bidari in western
Azerbaijan province, was first arrested in May 2007. He was released on bail,
then re-arrested in July 2009 amid the government’s massive crackdown on
dissidents and the press.

A Revolutionary Court in Tehran convicted Matin-Pour on
charges of having “relations with foreigners” and “propagating against the
regime,” according to local news reports. He was sentenced to an eight-year
prison term.

In September 2012, Matin-Pour's wife, Atieh Taheri, told the
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the journalist had been
kept in solitary confinement for months, interrogated, and tortured. Reformist
news websites reported that Matin-Pour had developed heart and respiratory
problems.

The Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency reported on
April 1, 2013, that Matin-Pour had also developed severe spinal pain and
chronic headaches in prison. The agency said authorities had denied his
repeated requests for transfer to a hospital.

Abolfazl Abedini Nasr, Bahar Ahvaz
Imprisoned: March 3, 2010

Abedini, who wrote about labor issues for the provincial
weekly Bahar Ahvaz, was arrested in Ahvaz and transferred to Evin Prison in
Tehran, according to the website of Reporters and Human Rights Activists.

An Ahvaz court in April 2010 sentenced Abedini to 11 years
in prison on anti-state charges that included having “contact with enemy
states,” the reformist news website Jonbesh-e-Rah-e-Sabz reported.
Abedini was not represented by a lawyer at trial. When Abedini appealed, a
Khuzestan provincial appellate court would not allow a defense lawyer to
present arguments, the reformist website Kaleme reported. The appeals
court upheld the verdict.

In September 2010, Human Rights House in Iran reported that
Abedini had been beaten at Ahvaz Prison. He was transferred to Tehran's Evin
Prison later that same month, the group reported. On May 4, 2011, a
Revolutionary Court judge sentenced Abedini to an additional year in prison on
the charge of “propagating against the regime,” Human Rights House reported.
The basis for the additional charge was not disclosed.

Ghaderi was arrested in connection with entries he posted on
his blog, IRNA-ye maa, or Our IRNA, a reference to the Islamic Republic's
official news agency. In the entries, he wrote about street protests and other
developments after the contested 2009 presidential election, according to the
reformist news website Jonbesh-e-Rah-e-Sabz.

In January 2011, Ghaderi was sentenced to four years in
prison and 60 lashes on charges of "propagating against the regime,"
"creating public anxiety," and "spreading falsehoods,"
according to the BBC's Farsi service.

Ghaderi was an editor and reporter for IRNA for 18 years
until he was dismissed for writing about the 2009 election on his blog, Jonbesh-e-Rah-e-Sabz said.
Pro-government news websites, among them Rasekhoon and Haghighat News,
called him a "seditionist" who was arrested for "immoral"
acts. Ghaderi's blog was repeatedly blocked by authorities before he was
detained, Jonbesh-e-Rah-e-Sabz reported.

Among the entries that authorities found objectionable was a
piece in which Ghaderi interviewed several Iranian homosexuals. The article was
an apparent reaction to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's public assertion that
"there are no homosexuals in Iran." The lashes in his sentence were
for "cooperating with homosexuals," the BBC reported.

In August 2012, Ghaderi told his wife that he and 13
political prisoners had received lashes, according to the U.S.
government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

The reformist news website Kaleme reported that
Ghaderi was being held at Evin Prison. The journalist has not been allowed
furlough since his arrest.

Pourshajari, a blogger who wrote under the penname Siamak Mehr,
was arrested at his home in Karaj, outside Tehran, according to news and human
rights websites. In his blog Gozaresh be Khaak-e-Iran (Reports to the
Soil of Iran), Pourshajari was critical of Iran's theological state.

In an open letter dated December 2010, published by the
Human Rights and Democracy Activists of Iran, Pourshajari described his arrest
and subsequent detention. He said intelligence agents confiscated a computer
hard drive, satellite receiver, and numerous documents. The journalist wrote
that he was taken to Rajaee Shahr Prison, where interrogators tortured him and
subjected him to a mock execution. He said he was not allowed visitors, phone
calls, or access to a lawyer.

Pourshajari was sentenced to three years in prison in
December 2010 on charges of "propagating against the regime" and
"insulting the supreme leader Human Rights and Democracy Activists of Iran
reported. In October 2011, he was transferred to Ghezel Hessar Prison, where
hardened criminals are confined, the group said.

In April 2012, the Karaj Revolutionary Court sentenced
Pourshajari to an additional year in prison on blasphemy charges, bringing his
total sentence to four years. The journalist has declined to file appeals,
citing the lack of due process in the judicial system.

Pourshajari’s daughter told the
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran on April 1, 2013, that the
journalist had suffered a heart attack in prison in the fall of 2012. She said
her father would die in custody unless prison authorities allowed him to have
open heart surgery.

Arash Honarvar Shojaei, freelance
Imprisoned: October 28, 2010

Nearly a year after Shojaei was first jailed, a special
clerical court sentenced him to four years in prison and 50 lashes on October
2, 2011, on multiple charges of "acting against national security,"
"espionage," and "cooperation with foreign embassies," the
reformist news outlet Radio Zamaneh reported.

Shojaei, a blogger and cleric, was also the author of the
book Madar-e-Shari'at, about the dissident cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Kazem
Shariatmadari, according to Radio Zamaneh. Shariatmadari had opposed the
principle of velayat-e-faqih, which seeks to convey unlimited power to the
supreme leader.

Shojaei was being held at Evin Prison, where he endured
torture and several months of solitary confinement, according to the Human
Rights House of Iran and Radio Zamaneh. The journalist suffered from a heart
condition, a hearing impairment, epilepsy, brain atrophy, spinal disc problems,
and diabetes, all of which developed while he was in prison, reformist news
websites said.

Shojaei was granted a medical furlough in November 2011 but
was summoned back to Evin Prison in January 2012 before his medical treatment
had been completed, news reports said. He was briefly hospitalized in September
2012 after suffering a heart attack and seizure, according to the International
Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency reported that Shojaei
has waged multiple hunger strikes to protest his treatment in prison.

Fereydoun Seydi Rad, freelance
Imprisoned: March 2, 2011

Seydi Rad, a blogger, was held in Evin Prison after being
convicted of "propagating against the regime" on his blog, Arak
Green Revolution. Seydi Rad wrote about the pro-democracy movement, student
protests, and labor strikes in the city of Arak.

A Revolutionary Court in Tehran also convicted Seydi Rad on
anti-state charges related to taking part in a 2010 protest and attending the
2009 funeral of Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, a prominent cleric who had
criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's positions. The court imposed a total
sentence of three years when it handed down the verdict in August 2011.

Seydi Rad's 2011 arrest was not disclosed for several
months, according to news accounts. His sister, Faranak Seydi, told the
reformist news website Jonbesh-e-Rah-e-Sabz that family members had not
told the media about the journalist’s arrest because they feared reprisal. The
Committee of Human Rights Reporters, an organization of journalists who
document human rights abuses, said Seydi Rad underwent 43 days of interrogation
and solitary confinement after being arrested.

Alireza Rajaee, freelance
Imprisoned: April 23, 2011

Rajaee, a leader of Iran's Journalists Association and
editor for several reformist publications, was being held at Evin Prison,
according to reformist news outlets. He was summoned to serve a previously
suspended three-year term that dated to a 2001 case in which he was convicted
of "acting against national security."

While in prison, Rajaee signed a number of letters calling
for free elections and protesting detention conditions, which led to new
charges of "propagating against the regime," news reports said. In
February 2012, he was sentenced to an additional four years in prison.

Rajaee served as a politics editor and editorial board
member for reformist publications including Jame'eh, Iran-e-Farda, Payam-e-Hajar,
and Iran Political.

Alireza Behshti Shirazi, Kalameh Sabz
Imprisoned: July 10, 2011

Authorities summoned Shirazi, editor-in-chief of the
now-defunct reformist daily Kalameh Sabz, to serve a five-year prison
sentence in Evin Prison, according to reformist news websites. Kalemeh Sabz was
one of the initial Green Movement publications, which arose after the disputed
2009 election and criticized the regime's policies, according to news reports.

Shirazi was first arrested in December 2009 and transferred
to solitary confinement in Evin Prison, according to reformist news websites.
He was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of "acting against
national security," but was released on bail in October 2010, the report
said. He was summoned to begin serving his prison term in July 2011.

Ahmadreza Ahmadpour, freelance
Imprisoned: July 18, 2011

Ahmadpour, a journalist, blogger, and researcher at Qom
Seminary, was serving a three-year term at Yazd Prison on anti-state charges
stemming from a letter he wrote to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon,
according to reformist news websites. In the letter, written in 2010 while he
was serving an earlier prison term, Ahmadpour protested abuses of his rights.
The Qom Special Clerics Court also imposed 10 years of exile, defrocking, and
deprivation of any clerical position, according to the same reports.

A disabled Iran-Iraq War veteran, Ahmadpour suffers from
respiratory problems due to exposure to chemical warfare. His respiratory
condition has worsened and he now suffers cardiac problems due to harsh prison
conditions and lack of medical care, according to reformist news websites.
Ahmadpour was being held at the Khorram Abad Prison, which is used to confine
hardened criminals, according to news
reports.

Ahmadpour was a student of Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri,
the now-deceased cleric who had criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
positions. He was arrested in December 2009 and sentenced to a year in prison
on charges of “acting against national security” and “violating the dignity of
the clergy” in his writings, reformist news websites said.

Jalalifar, who had reported on child labor and political prisoner
issues for the committee, was first arrested in December 2009 on charges of
"propaganda against the regime." He was free on bail for more than a
year before being summoned back to Evin Prison in July 2011, the BBC Persian
service reported.

The opposition website Pars Daily News reported
that Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Jalalifar to three
years in prison on charges of "propaganda against the regime" and
"assembly and collusion with the intent to act against national security."

Jalalifar and four other political detainees waged a hunger
strike in June 2012 to protest abusive treatment by prison guards, according to
the reformist news website Kaleme. Numerous journalists working for the
Committee of Human Rights Reporters have been detained since 2009 in connection
with their work in exposing human rights violations and government malfeasance.

Morteza Moradpour, Yazligh
Imprisoned: August 26, 2011

Moradpour, who wrote for Yazligh, a children's
magazine, was serving a three-year prison term on charges of "propagating
against the Islamic Republic of Iran," "mutiny," and
"illegal congregation," according to the Committee of Human Rights
Reporters. He was being held in Tabriz Central Prison.

Moradpour was first arrested in 2009 along with several
family members during a protest over Azeri-language rights in Tabriz in
northwestern Azerbaijan province, according to the committee. Two issues
of Yazligh were used as evidence in the trial against him, the news
website Bizim Tabriz reported. In November 2009, Moradpour was
sentenced to three years in prison, Azeri news websites reported. He was
released on the equivalent of US$50,000 bail in late 2010, according to Baybak,
a local Azeri news website.

He was re-arrested in August 2011 after taking part in
protests related to the environmental degradation of Lake Orumiyeh in
northwestern Iran, reformist news websites reported.

Authorities arrested at least 30 members of the religious
minority Gonabadi dervishes following a confrontation with plainclothes agents
in the town of Kavar in Fars province, a spokesman for the group told the
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Many dervishes were imprisoned
immediately after the 2011 crackdown.

Among the detainees were journalists affiliated with Majzooban-e-Noor,
a website that reports news about the Gonabadi dervish community, according to
the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran and the reformist news
website Rooz Online.

The Majzooban-e-Noor website listed Daneshjoo, Karampour,
Entessari, Hamid Reza Moradi, and Yadollahi as directors, and Behroozi and
Eslami as editors. The journalists are also lawyers who have represented
Gonabadi dervishes in recent years. Saleh Moradi, Hamid’s brother, as well as Abdi,
are listed on the site as reporters.

On January 15, 2013, the journalists refused to attend their
trial, saying the Revolutionary Court was not qualified to hear their case,
news reports said. The journalists were put in solitary confinement in Evin
Prison and face charges of “publishing falsehoods,” “creating public anxiety,”
“propaganda against the state,” and “acting against national security,”
according to the International
Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Majzooban-e-Noor said agents had targeted the
journalists in an effort to silence news coverage about the group. Hamid Reza
Moradi’s wife told the Campaign for Human Rights that her husband and his
colleagues had established the website so that “people would know what is
happening to the dervishes.” She said the charges against the journalists were
unfounded and that her husband denied the accusations, saying that he had
defended the rights of the dervishes but had not done anything illegal.

Saeed Madani, freelance
Imprisoned: January 7, 2012

Security forces arrested Madani, a former editorial board
member of the long-defunct Iran-e-Farda magazine and former
editor-in-chief of the quarterly Refah-e-Ejtemaee (Journal of Social
Welfare), and confiscated a computer hard drive from his home, news reports
said.

The journalist, 74, was placed in solitary confinement after
his arrest, Madani's wife told the International Campaign for Human Rights in
Iran in March 2012. His wife also said their family had not been told of his
condition in prison. The reformist news website Kaleme reported that
Madani had been subjected to violent and abusive interrogations.

Madani faced trial on January 16, 2013, at a Tehran
Revolutionary Court on charges of “propaganda against the state” and “assembly
and collusion,” and offered a statement in his own defense, news reports said.
He has not yet been told of the court’s decision, reports said.

Kasra Nouri, Majzooban-e-Noor
Imprisoned: March 14, 2012

Nouri, a reporter for the news website Majzooban-e-Noor,
was charged with "propagating against the regime" and having unlawful
contact with the U.S. government-funded Radio Farda, according to his employer.
His family knew nothing about his whereabouts or condition until a month after
his arrest, when they discovered he was being held at the Shiraz Intelligence
Office's Detention Center, his mother, Shokoofeh Yadollahi, told the
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. After repeated attempts, she
said, they were allowed to visit him.

Nouri awaited trial in prison on the initial counts. In a separate
case, the Shiraz Criminal Court convicted Nouri of "creating public
anxiety" and "publishing falsehoods," in connection with his
work, according to Majzooban-e-Noor. The court sentenced him to one year in
prison on those counts.

Majzooban-e-Noor covers news about the Gonabadi dervishes’
religious community. Nouri had reported that security and intelligence forces
had incited local residents to attack the dervishes during a September 2011
confrontation, causing one death and injuries to several others, according
to Majzooban-e-Noor. Many dervishes, including several other journalists
with Majzooban-e-Noor, were imprisoned immediately after the 2011
crackdown.

Nouri has developed respiratory problems during his
imprisonment at Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz, according to reformist news
websites. The journalist began waging a hunger strike in April 2013 to protest
the transfer to solitary confinement of several Majzooban-e Noor journalists, according
to Majzooban-e Noor.

Mahsa Amrabadi, freelance
Imprisoned: May 9, 2012

Amrabadi, a reporter for several reformist publications
including Etemad-e-Melli, was summoned to Evin Prison women's ward to serve a
one-year prison sentence, according to reformist news websites.

Amrabadi was first arrested in June 2009 and released two
months later on bail of US$200,000, according to the International Campaign for
Human Rights in Iran. In October 2010, she was sentenced to one year in prison
and a four-year suspended term on charges of "propaganda against the
regime," according to reformist news websites. She was arrested again
briefly in February 2011 and released on bail, according to news reports. In
February 2012, an appeals court upheld her sentence.

Her husband, Massoud Bastani, who is also a journalist, is
serving a six-year prison term at Rajaee Shahr Prison, CPJ research shows. Bastani
was released on furlough in March 2013.

Rahman Bouzari, Shargh
Imprisoned: May 19, 2012

Authorities summoned Bouzari, an editor for the reformist
daily Shargh and contributor to several reformist news websites, to serve
a two-year prison term, according to reformist news websites.

Bouzari was initially arrested in late May 2011, according
to reformist news websites. Security forces raided his Tehran home and
confiscated his laptop and other personal belongings, news reports said. He was
released on bail and later sentenced to two years in prison and 74 lashes by a
Tehran Revolutionary Court on charges of "propagating against the
regime," the reports said.

Naghipour, a reporter and Web editor for the Human Rights
Activists News Agency, was serving a seven-year term at Evin Prison on
anti-state charges related to his work in documenting violations of human
rights, according to news reports.

Naghipour, 30, also established and managed a website that
collected Farsi articles in different areas of humanities, philosophy,
politics, and literature, according to reformist news websites.

Zhila Bani-Yaghoub, Sarmayeh
Imprisoned: September 2, 2012

Bani-Yaghoub, a former editor of the banned reformist
daily Sarmayeh and editor-in-chief of the Iranian Women's Club, a
news website focusing on women's rights, began serving a one-year prison term
in September 2012 in Evin Prison's women's ward, according to news reports. She
had been sentenced in 2010 on charges of "propagating against the
regime," and "insulting the president" in connection with
articles she wrote during the June 2009 contested presidential elections. Her
sentence also included a 30-year ban on practicing journalism.

Bani-Yaghoub was first arrested in June 2009 with her
husband, Bahman Ahmadi Amouee, a journalist who had contributed to several
reformist newspapers. Bani-Yaghoub was released on bail in August 2009, but
Amouee was sentenced to a five-year term on anti-state charges. Amouee was released
on furlough in March 2013, according to news reports.

In 2009, Bani-Yaghoub was awarded the Courage in Journalism
Prize by the International Women's Media Foundation and in 2010 was a recipient
of the Freedom of Speech Award from Reporters Without Borders.

In March 2013, Bani-Yaghoub was denied furlough for Iranian New
Year, reports said.

Nazar Ahari, a blogger and founding member of the Committee
of Human Rights Reporters, an organization of journalists documenting human
rights abuses, was summoned by authorities to begin serving her prison sentence
in the women's ward of Tehran's Evin Prison, the committee reported.

In 2010, Nazar Ahari was sentenced to six years in prison on
charges of moharebeh, or "waging war against God," "propagating
against the regime," and "acting against national security" for
reporting on political gatherings, according to the International Campaign for
Human Rights in Iran. In January 2011, an appeals court reduced her sentence to
four years in prison and 74 lashes, news reports said.

Nazar Ahari was first arrested in June 2009 and spent
several months in Evin Prison, including time in solitary confinement, news
reports said. She was a 2011 recipient of the Theodor Haecker Prize for
"courageous Internet reporting on human rights violations."

Nazar Ahari was granted a three-day furlough
for the Iranian New Year on March 12, 2013, according to the Committee of Human
Rights Reporters website. She has since returned to prison, news reports said.

Kaveh Taheri, freelance
Imprisoned: September 23, 2012

Police arrested Taheri,
30, and charged him with “acting against national security” and “creating public
anxiety in the virtual space” in connection with his blog, called Pouyesh, his
sister, Laleh Taheri, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Taheri was not a member of any group and engaged in no
political activities, according to his sister. “He only has a blog, in which he
wrote his opinions on the country’s issues,” she said. The blog has since been
taken down from the Web, she said.

Security forces confiscated Taheri’s notes, personal hard
drive, and a journalist ID for the news website EuroNews after his arrest,
reports said. His sister told the International
Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that authorities then filed additional
charges against the blogger, including “reporting for the news agency.” She said
Taheri had not yet begun reporting for EuroNews.

Taheri is being held at Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz, news
reports said.

Mehdi Khazali, freelance
Imprisoned: October 30, 2012

Khazali, a critical blogger, was sentenced in February 2012
to 14 years in prison, 10 years in exile, and 90 lashes after being convicted
of "insulting the supreme leader," according to human rights groups.
Authorities summoned Khazali to Evin Prison in October to begin serving the
sentence, reformist news websites said.

Khazali, the son of a high-ranking cleric, had criticized
the regime on his blog, which has since been hacked, CPJ research shows.

He was initially arrested in January 2012. His wife told the
reformist news website Jonbesh-e Rah-e Sabz that he was beaten during
the arrest and suffered a fractured arm, broken teeth, and a knee injury. He
was held in solitary confinement in Evin Prison for three weeks until he was
transferred to the prison's general population, news reports said. In late
February 2012, Khazali suffered a heart attack while waging a hunger strike and
was taken to a Tehran hospital for treatment, according to news reports. He was
furloughed in March 2012.

Khazali began waging a hunger strike in early 2013,
according to reformist news website Kaleme. His son,
Mohammad Saleh Khazali, said the journalist’s overall health has deteriorated
in custody.

Alireza Roshan, Shargh
Imprisoned: November 18, 2012

Roshan, a reporter for the reformist daily Shargh, was
summoned to Evin Prison to serve a one-year prison term, according to the
reformist news website Kaleme.

Roshan was initially arrested in September 2011 following
violent confrontations between plainclothes security forces and Gonabadi dervishes
in Fars Province, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in
Iran. Roshan spent more than a month in solitary confinement in Evin Prison
before he was released on bail, according to reformist news websites.

In October, a Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Roshan to
one year in prison and a four-year suspended prison term for his cooperation
with the Majzooban-e Noor news website on charges of "assembly
and collusion with the intent to disrupt national security," reformist
news websites said.

Mehrdad Sarjoui, Iran News
Imprisoned: November 28, 2012

Sarjoui was initially arrested in July 2011 and sentenced by
a Revolutionary Court in Tehran to 10 years in prison on charges of
“cooperating with enemy states,” according to the reformist news site Kaleme.
He was detained for 10 months and freed on bail in May 2012, the reports said.
In August 2012, an appeals court reduced his sentence to three
years in prison and seven years’ suspended imprisonment. He was summoned to
begin serving his term in November 2012, news reports said.

Sarjoui covered international news for the English-language daily Iran News and other publications. He had previously worked in the international relations department of the government's Strategic Research Center, according to the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Staff members for the research agency had access to politically sensitive material, which placed them under intense scrutiny by government security agents.

Intelligence forces arrested Khosrow Kordpour, editor-in-chief of the Mukrian News Agency, an outlet that covers the arrests and prosecutions of Kurdish activists and documents human rights violations. The U.S. government-funded Radio Farda reported that authorities had a warrant for his arrest and also searched his home, but did not offer further details.

Kordpour’s brother, freelance journalist Massoud Kordpour, was arrested at the Boukan Intelligence Office the next day, when he went to inquire about the imprisonment of his brother. Authorities later searched his home and confiscated personal items. Massoud Kordpour had frequently covered human rights in Kurdistan province, and his work has been published by RFI Persian, Deutsche Welle Persian, Voice of America Persian, and on local and Kurdish-language websites.

Massoud was held in solitary confinement and then transferred to Mahabad Prison in Azerbaijan Province.

Both journalists were transferred to Orumiyeh Prison on
March 26, 2013, according to Kurdpa and
Radio Zamaneh.

Neither journalist has been allowed access to his lawyer or
family members, according to the independent press service Human Rights
Activist News Agency. Another brother, As’ad, told Kurdpa
on April 11, 2013, that a judge had forbidden the journalists’ family from
visiting the brothers.

Authorities did not disclose their health or any charges
against them.

Sherif Mansour is CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. CPJ researchers provided reporting for the capsules of imprisoned journalists.